St. Joseph Hill’s Kelsey Carey (50) had seven kills and four blocks. (Damion Reid)
St. Catharine Academy has won three straight CHSAA Bronx/Westchester division titles and went to the CHSAA Class A state final a year ago. St. Joseph Hill, on the other hand, has never made it this far – in fact, no Staten Island team had before this year.
Considering those facts, just about everyone in the gymnasium pegged SCA as the favorite. But the Crusaders didn’t get the memo.
“We’re the favorites?” senior outside hitter Amarilda Shkoza said incredulously. “Really? Wow, I didn’t know that. Thanks.”
That’s how St. Catharine has played the last few years – keeping outside influences on the outside and focusing on the court. That’s why the Crusaders never let the pressure get to them in a 25-19, 9-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-7 marathon win over St. Joseph Hill in the CHSAA Archdiocesan girls volleyball semifinals Friday at Preston HS in The Bronx.
Normally, SCA (18-1) would be playing a fellow Bronx team in this round, but two Staten Island squads – Hill (12-2) and St. Joseph by the Sea – advanced for the first time since the format changed in 2007. It made for some unique matchups and no one really knew what to expect.
“It’s a little unsettling, because you don’t know who their big hitters are or anything like that, whereas with the Bronx teams I’ve seen them for how many years,” St. Catharine coach Alessandra Rosso said. “But you knew they were good coming in, because they beat a good team, they beat Preston. So you knew they could play pretty well, and they did. They didn’t disappoint whatsoever.”
St. Catharine will have a much more familiar opponent in the championship match Sunday as it goes for three straight Archdiocesan titles against rival Cardinal Spellman, which beat Sea in four. But the Crusaders really had to gut this one out. The Hilltoppers went down 2-1 in sets, but refused to go away, forcing a decisive fifth set.
“We just played the No. 1 team [from The Bronx] and we took them to five,” Hill coach Virginia Mayrose said. “That’s a goal. So we reached a goal. … I think we’ve had better games, but even with that said, look what we did. We still took them to five.”
The Hilltoppers served very well all match. In the second set alone, Amanda DiPaolo had service runs of 6-0 and 5-0. She finished with seven aces. Sophomore middle hitter Kelsey Carey, who went head to head in a great matchup with St. Catharine middle Charlayne Hurlington, closed the fourth set with two blocks. She finished with seven kills and four blocks.
St. Catharine buckled down in the fifth set, though. Elaine Ruiz had three of her eight kills in the fifth and Hurlington fittingly finished the match off with a kill. She was so key in the middle, with eight blocks and four kills. The victory not only gets the Crusaders into the finals, but also clinches a third straight berth in the CHSAA Class A state tournament, held next weekend at Spellman.
“That’s what we’ve been working for all season, to go to states,” said Shkoza, who finished with nine kills. “Now, we’re going to states. [The Archdiocesan final] is our next thing. One step at a time.”
It’s what they’ve been doing so well for the last three years.
